Analysis of My Christian Name
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1826 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) – 1887 (Shortlands, London)
MY Christian name, my Christian name,
I never hear it now:
None have the right to utter it,
'T is lost, I scare know how.
My worldly name the world speaks loud;
Thank God for well-earned fame!
But silence sits at my cold hearth,--
I have no household name.
My Christian name, my Christian name,
It has an uncouth sound;
My mother chose it out of those
In Bible pages found:
Mother, whose accents made half sweet
What else I held in shame,
Dost thou remember up in heaven
My poor lost Christian name?
Brothers and sisters, mockers oft
Of the quaint name I bore,
Would I could leap back years, to hear
Ye shout it out once more!
One speaks it still, in written lines,
The last fraternal claim:
But the wide seas between us drown
Its sound--my Christian name.
I had a long dream once. Her voice
Might breathe the homely word,
And make it music--as love makes
Any name, said or heard.
O, dumb, dumb lips!--O, silent heart!
Though it is no ones' blame:
Now while I live I'll never hear
Her speak my Christian name.
God send her bliss, and send me rest!
If her white footsteps calm
Should track my bleeding feet, God make
To them each blood-drop balm!
Peace--peace. O mother, put thou forth
Thine elder, holier claim,
And the first word I hear in heaven
May be my Christian name.
Scheme | Abxbxa xa Acxcxada xefexaxa xgxgxafa xhxhxada |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 11011101 110111 11011101 1111111 11010111 111111 11011111 11111 11011101 111111 11011111 010101 10110111 111101 110101010 111101 1001011 101111 11111111 111111 11110101 010101 10110111 111101 11011101 110101 01110111 101111 11111101 111111 11111101 011101 11010111 10111 11110111 111111 11110111 1101001 001111010 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,281 |
Words | 241 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 2, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 60 Views
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"My Christian Name" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8038/my-christian-name>.
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